Archive for January, 2006

Hundreds of “Tehran’s Collective Bus Company” (TCBC) drivers, technicians and workers will stay home, this upcoming Friday, in order to protest against the brutal repression of their peaceful actions and the mistreatment of their colleagues and family members.

Hundreds of TCBC employees were arrested and tens, including wives and children, were wounded following last Saturday’s strike, by brutal Islamist militiamen and Islamic regime’s plain clothes’ agents. Most of the arrested are kept in section 240 of the infamous Evin political jail and several of them have been put in solitary confinement in order to make false confessions on links with foreign intelligence.

Reactions to the lopsided Hamas victory over Fatah last week in the Palestinian Authority elections divided into three. Some, like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee expressed dismay, worried about Hamas openly boasting of its goal to destroy the Jewish state, seeing this as the end of the peace process.

Others, such as former president Jimmy Carter, gulped hard and defied common sense to hope that following Hamas winning 74 seats to Fatah’s 45 in the 132-seat legislative council, it would be tamed and transformed into Israel’s peace partner.

A third group, which includes Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby, determined that the Hamas success was “by far the best result” because it offers an “unambiguous reality check into the nature of Palestinian society.”

DANIEL PIPES, Director of the Middle East Forum: The Hamas victory will have the largest impact not in relations with Israel, where its goals and those of its predecessor Fatah resemble each other, but in two other arenas. Within the Palestinian Authority, Hamas will run a very different show from the anarchic, corrupt, sloppy dictatorship bequeathed by Yasser Arafat. Expect to see a far stricter, more religious, more disciplined order, with Fatah members, including Mahmoud Abbas, sidelined and probably repressed.

Second, Arab Islamists have already achieved electoral success and takeover in Iraq, but Hamas represents the first Arab Islamist terrorist group to be legitimated through the ballot box. Comparable groups in countries such as Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco will watch and be encouraged, should there be any show of acceptance of Hamas by the U.S. and other governments.

Another public execution was carried, today, in the City of Shiraz under heavy security measures and despite residents’ protest.

The victim named “Mozafar Zareh” was accused of “Kidnapping”, “Armed Robbery” and “Murder”. He was arrested following the clashes which happened, two years ago, in this southern city between protesters and Islamic regime’s security forces.

Tens were injured and at least two were killed during the clashes. Several public buildings were damaged by protesters who retaliated to the brutal attacks made by militiamen.

Public executions are common, in Iran, as the theocratic regime uses them to show example to the population on the consequences of what can happened due to the expression of their aspiration for a total change.

The Islamic republic regime is known for using false labels, such as, “Kidnapping”, “Armed Robbery”, “Murder”, “Drug Trafficking”, “Spying” or “Banditism” in order to qualify some of its exasperated opponents. Such policy helps its European, Asian and S. American partners to continue their economic relations with a repressive regime vis-à-vis their public opinions.

Under no conditions should Israel talk to the PA particularly now that Hamas is the party in power. It doesn’t matter if Hamas or Fatah change their charters. It doesn’t matter if they agree to forgo violence. It doesn’t matter what else they might agree to. What matters is that they don’t want peace but victory.

While the world carries on like there is a peace process, in reality there is a war process only. To test this thesis I suggest you look for any evidence that suggests we have moved closer to peace rather then to war since the Oslo Accords were signed. Conversely compare the situation now with what existed prior to the accords.

What I see now is that the PA has always been dedicated to destroying Israel. More so now that Hamas is in power. It has been arming for war rather then disarming for peace as agreed to in Oslo and the Roadmap. This has accelerated since the Gaza disengagement and the Rafah agreement. Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade has announced that it now has a missile that can travel 16 kilometers which is enough to reach any city in Israel from the West Bank. Al Qaeda is now operating in Lebanon, Sinai, Gaza and Jordan. Hamas is not only part of the Islamic Brotherhood; it has a strategic relationship with Syria and Iran who are also on record as intent on destroying Israel. Iran not only finances Hamas, but also pulls its strings. Hamas has announced if Israel attacks Iran, it will attack Israel. Rest assured that Hezbollah, with its 10,000 rockets, will also join in. The dominant party in Iraq has also been on record of not recognizing Israel and they too are influenced by Iran.

Syria and Iran continue to resist American pressure and show no signs of capitulating. Similarly Hamas won’t capitulate and will not break ranks with the rejectionist forces. Soon the US will be retreating from Iraq, leaving in its wake a very unstable country. Iran is soon to open an embassy in Ramallah.

Israel should recognize the peace process for what it is and get on a war footing. Its goal should not be peace but victory.

In the common parlance of the average man, the word “genocide” is rarely associated with communism (i.e., the Soviet Union or Peoples’ Republic of China). Historically speaking, many know of Hitler’s deeds; fewer might have heard about the Turkish slaughter of approximately 1 million Armenians circa 1915 – 1917, an incident now also termed a “genocide;” but how many know about — or dare speak of — Soviet atrocities which claimed at least 16 to 50 million lives? During Mao’s reconstruction of China in his own twisted image, he killed between 16 and 30 million. Surely these were “holocausts,” but are rarely referred to as such. How many box-office hits have reminded us of Hitler’s slaughter of 6 million Jews, but where are the high-profile tales of communist atrocities? Alright, the Killing Fields had a few minutes of mention, documenting Pol Pot’s systematic murder of 2 million Cambodian civilians, but can you think of any others?

Fire forced the closure of the Navab Metro Station in the Iranian Capital. The incident which is believed to be an act of arson took place today and on the same day that many of Tehran’s Collective Bus drivers observed a protest action.

Official sources have attributed the fire to a short circuit but curiously the same motif was used in order to justify the burning of a collective bus, happened the day before, in southern Tehran.

Tens of Tehran’s Collective Bus drivers, technicians and workers have been wounded by brutal militiamen who have attacked the strikers gathered in some of the terminals. The strikers were refusing to allow Bassij para-military members to take the wheels of their vehicles.

Wives of at least 3 strikers have been arrested at their homes and brought to an unknown destination in order to be use as tool of pressure against their husbands. Threats have been made about their fate if the strike doesn’t come to an end and that the drivers and other employees of Tehran’s Collective Bus Company don’t start work on Sunday morning.

Hundreds of Tehran’s Collective Bus drivers, technicians and workers have started their strike despite all repressive methods used by the Islamic republic regime. Many of the employees have stayed home by forcing the Islamic regime to deploy its plain clothes security agents in the streets of the Capital and behind the wheels of the buses.

Hundreds of Tehran’s Collective Bus drivers, technicians and workers have been arrested, since yesterday, following the issuance of a notice of strike. The protest action is to start from Saturday early morning and should affect most of the ten transit areas of the Greater Tehran.

Many of the arrests took place, yesterday evening, at the homes of those suspected to be part of the tomorrow’s strike and the Islamic judiciary is intending to trial many of them for conspiracy. False charges, such as, “Drug trafficking”, “Having Prohibited Arms” or “Endangering the National Security” are expected to be use against the arrested employees.

Let there be no mistake: Masud Rajavi’s Mujahedin-e Khalq is a terrorist group; Rajavi is as much a Monster of the Left as Yasir Arafat [1] or Robert Mugabe.

Mujahedin-e Khalq members trained with Arafat’s Palestinian Liberation Organization and in Qadhafi’s Libya. The groups terrorists have assassinated Americans, Iranian civilians, and bombed public buildings. Its members embraced Saddam Hussein and participated in the slaughter of Iraqi Kurdish civilians following their 1991 uprising against Saddam’s dictatorial rule.

On the one hand, Hamas is a terrorist group that unabashedly targets Israeli civilians and calls for the elimination of the Jewish state. On the other hand, it just won what observers deem to have been a reasonably fair election, and so enjoys the legitimacy that comes from the ballot box. Every foreign ministry now confronts a dilemma: Nudge it to moderation or give up on it as irredeemably extremist? Meet with Hamas members or avoid them? Continue to donate to the Palestinian Authority or starve it of funds?

The Free Muslim Coalition applauds President Mahmoud Abbas of Palestine and his FATAH party for respecting the results of democracy in light of their substantial losses to the radical Islamic group, HAMAS.

HAMAS has won a surprise victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections. Early results give Hamas 76 of the 132 seats in the chamber, with the ruling Fatah party trailing with 43 seats. On top of the seats taken by Hamas and Fatah, the 13 remaining seats went to smaller parties and independents, four of whom were backed by Hamas.

This is the first time in modern Arab history that a ruling party gracefully accepts its losses. The Palestinian people have become the most democratic people in the entire Arab and Muslim world and this is a cause for celebration.

Hamas’ victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections is already being sanitized by the politically correct, despite the terrorist group’s bloody track record and its fallacious and dubious historical claims to the land of Israel. Thankfully, some Western leaders are condemning the selection of murderers by Palestinians for their government.

At the top of a BBC article yesterday regarding the Hamas terrorist group winning Palestinian elections:

The win poses problems for efforts to restart peace talks with Israel, say analysts. Israel insists it will not deal with an authority including Hamas.

So this is all just Israel’s problem/fault because the majority of Palestinians want to be ruled by terrorists?!?! Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza. Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has promised to give back more land. What does Israel get in return?

From the beginning of the second intifada in 2000 until last year’s truce, Israel says that Hamas carried out 425 attacks, killing 377 and wounding 2,076.

Jewish history goes back at least 5000 years in the Levant. King David made Jerusalem the capital of Israel 3000 years ago. King Solomon built the first temple there in 970 BC. Yet Mohammed didn’t even establish the Muslim religion until the 7th century AD. So how can Palestinians rightfully claim that they have first historical dibs on Jerusalem and all of Israel?

Even the open-source Wikipedia, which has been prone to politically correct sanitization, states:

It is especially painful for those of us who have spent time in Israel to hear this steady stream of delegitimization of Jewish history. How many of the Holy Land’s ancient archaeological sites scream with Jewish history, e.g., Hebrew inscriptions on weathered stone. Tel Megido? The Wailing Wall? The Cave of Machpelah (Tomb of the Patriarchs)?

Information about the history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not that hard to find — especially sources verifying the historical sequence of events. For example, take the World Almanac and Book of Facts, available in any mainstream bookstore and at most public libraries. Its profile of Israel states,

… Arab invaders conquered Palestine in 636. The Arabic language and Islam prevailed within a few centuries, but a Jewish minority remained…

… Jewish immigration, begun in the late 19th century, swelled in the 1930s with refugees from the Nazis; heavy Arab immigration from Syria and Lebanon also occurred. Arab opposition to Jewish immigration turned violent in 1920, 1921, 1929, and 1936. The UN General Assembly voted in 1947 to partition Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish state. Britain withdrew in May 1948.

Israel was declared an independent state May 14, 1948; the Arabs rejected partition. Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia invaded, but failed to destroy the Jewish state, which gained territory. …

So we have ancient evidence of a Jewish presence in “Palestine” going back thousands of years, which can easily be found in any reputable archaeological journal. We have evidence of a continuous Jewish presence in the Holy Land. We have evidence that Arabs, not just Jews, were immigrants into the Levant. Finally, we see that Arabs violently rejected the hallowed concept of a Palestinian homeland in 1948.

But Hamas’ election victory isn’t going over very well, among sane Western leaders, and with some whose sanity is questionable. Again, from the UK’s Telegraph:

The international community has reacted with alarm to news that Hamas, a militant organisation pledged to destroy Israel, has swept to power in Palestine’s parliamentary elections.

Western leaders united with Israel in calling for the group to give up its terrorist campaign.

American President George W Bush was similarly unequivocal. He told press: “You’re getting a sense of how I’m going to deal with Hamas if they end up in positions of responsibility. And the answer is: ‘Not until you renounce your desire to destroy Israel will we deal with you’.”

Downing Street also said Britain would only deal with the group if it gave up terror.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “Of course we recognise electoral mandates, but equally people have to be clear that we can only do business with those who have renounced terrorism.

“That’s the key distinction: do people support terrorism or do they not?”

The UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan joined Britain in calling Hamas’s mandate into question, insisting: “To carry weapons and participate in a democratic process and sit in parliament, there is a fundamental contradiction.”

“Any group that wishes to participate in the democratic process should ultimately disarm,” he added.

Dominique de Villepin, prime minister of France, said the “indispensable conditions” for France to work with Palestine included “the renunciation of violence and… the recognition of Israel and the recognition of international accords.”

Israel Prime Minister Sharon’s withdrawal from Gaza was a gamble, but one with a silver lining. The ensuing Palestinian chaos and Palestinians’ choice of murderers for their leadership are facts that will not be so easily ignored by the civilized world.